With a transit strike threatened for the week of Mobile World Congress, the world's largest mobile-phone trade show, the city of Barcelona, the GSM Association, and local tourism authorities are scrambling to find ways for the 60,000 convention-goers to get around town.

I just got off the phone with Montse Planas, communications director for Barcelona's tourism organization, and she has good news. Not great news, but good news.

"There are normally minimum services during a strike. During the last strike I took a bus from [northern Barcelona neighborhood] Gracia, and it was not a problem," she said.

And as MWC is the city's largest tourist event of the year, there's heavy pressure on the transit employees' union to change the dates of its strike.

"All the tourist sector in Barcelona is very angry about [the strike]," Planas said. "It's a very bad situation for hotels and restaurants, and I think perhaps that will change the decision on those dates."

According to Barcelona newspaper El Periodico, the union must take its strike authorization to the local Department of Labor on Feb. 17.

"I think it's possible to change [the dates] in that meeting, so I think this week it'll be possible to have more news," Planas said. "Don't panic. I think there will be solutions for this."

The Angel's In The DetailsThe strike will affect the metro and bus lines run by TMB, the local transit system. This is a big deal. But regional rail run by Renfe, including the critical link between the Passeig de Gracia station near many hotels and Sants station near the convention center, will still run. Certain suburban and tourist buses might also run.

I've also started hearing from vendors who are hiring minibuses to shuttle workers around and the GSMA has a statement on its Web page that it's developing "contingency plans."

"I can hire minibuses for the clients of my hotels, but traffic will be chaos without public transportation," the head of the Barcelona hoteliers' group, Jordi Clos, complained to El Periodico.

It sounds like this story is going to keep changing before conventioneers arrive on Feb. 25 and 26 to take a look at the new quad-core phones and tablets promised at one of the tech world's top trade shows. If you're going to check back, we'd suggest doing so around Feb. 17. We'll keep an eye on this story.

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

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